Freely design superior facades

Architectural façade systems: durable and fireproof

Kingspan is introducing its range of designer facade systems, Kingspan Facades, at the Polyclose and Facade 2020 trade shows. Kingspan Facades focuses specifically on complete facade systems for architectural facade construction. "In it, all high-quality ventilated facade systems and modular rear constructions are grouped to offer architects infinite design possibilities," said Evert Kraaima, Manager Facades & Technical Services for Kingspan.

Kingspan will present the innovative Dri-Design at both trade fairs, a total system that allows building ventilated facades in an efficient, fast way. In addition, the system comes with an enormous wealth of options for exterior finishing. That exterior finish consists of patented metal cassettes available as flat (Dri Design Flat), perforated (Dri-
Design Perforated), sloping (Dri-Design Tapered) or raised (Dri-Design Shadow) variant. The cassettes are available in different sizes and in a wide range of colors of polyester powder coating, anodized aluminum, stainless steel, zinc and copper. Dri-Design cassettes are manufactured in a production process where laser cutting, setting and finishing are fully automated. Virtually all project-specific requirements are therefore feasible.

Forty-year warranty

"The cassettes interlock and attach very quickly and easily with screws to our QuadCore^TM Karrier panel, another product from our Facades range," Kraaima clarified. "Quadcore^TM is an innovative insulation material developed by Kingspan. The name refers to the four strong properties of Kingspan QuadCore^TM: high insulation value [Rc value up to 8.16 m2K/W, U-value up to 0.12 W/m2K; ed.], superior fire safety, excellent durability values and forty-year thermal and structural warranty. The QuadCore^TM Karrier panels themselves are easily mounted on a steel substructure, provide immediate wind and water tightness, and provide an excellent basis for a thermal bridge-free installation of the Dri-Design system."

Complete facade system: QuadCoreTM Karrier panel, Dri-Design cassettes (Image: Kingspan).

Fire safety first

The introduction of Kingspan Facade systems also has another angle: the fire safety of buildings. Kraaima: "The fire in London's Grenfell Tower stirred up a lot in the construction sector and accelerated innovations around fire safety. We as Kingspan had already figured out that merely supplying products is not enough. After all, you may wonder who guarantees the safety of those products when they are applied. That was an important motive for setting up Kingspan Facades: supplying complete systems in which we supply both the front systems and the rear structures, but also conducting large-scale research into the fire safety of those systems. In the Netherlands this is done only at product and system level; we do large-scale testing according to British BS8414 standards and French LEPIR2 standards. Large-scale in this case means testing a complete facade system, including insulation, fasteners, cladding and seals. From that, we make a corner assembly at least eight meters high and over four meters wide. Then we look at the effect of a penetrating fire lasting thirty minutes at the bottom of the structure."

Taking responsibility

Kraaima again puts this in context: "If you combine two non-combustible products in a system, you still don't know if the whole structure is non-combustible. We believe in testing systems, not products. To put our money where our mouth is and also to further increase our knowledge of fire safety, we not only conduct these tests, but we are now building a complete laboratory in England where we put all systems to the test. This all fits within the Facades concept: to deliver complete architectural facade systems to our customers that are sustainable and fire-safe, guaranteed by one manufacturer: Kingspan."

Kingspan will be at Polyclose in Ghent (January 15, 16 and 17; stand 1464) and at Gevel 2020 in Rotterdam (January 28, 29 and 30; stand 01.A030)   

POLYCLOSE - BOOTH 1464